Pomegranate is one of my FAVORITE fruits, so when I saw this tart I just had to try it! And while matcha is not something I have usually, I thought, “Why not give it a go?”. So that’s what I did. You can find the recipe on page 196 of The Perfect Pie; and just like every other recipe in the book the photography is phenomenal and the recipe is so detailed it’s hard to mess up (If you are interested in reading my thoughts on the rest of the book you can find my review here: The Perfect Pie)!
The first thing you do is have a baked and cooled tart shell (but I had one done already so I skipped this step), then you make the chocolate filling. The filling sort of reminded me of a chocolate ganache but they had me include water in it, which was something I had not seen before.
I followed the steps to a tee to be sure the filling would set up right (they had me use a thermometer to make sure of that-as you can see from the photo below), then poured it into my tart crust and let it refrigerate while I worked on making lunch to precede this very anticipated dessert!
Once that was cooled I worked on the matcha whipped cream, tried my best to pipe it in it pretty fashion so the final product looked as pretty as theirs, and garnished with the remaining matcha powder and pomegranate seeds. Luckily, I had quite a few left over, which I happily snacked on after I finished the tart!
Then came the moment of truth, the taste test. I got mixed responses to this dish, to be honest. My mother liked the matcha whipped cream, my grandmother loved the chocolate filling, my sister was picking off the pomegranate seeds and I was throwing way more on than what was recommended! I think that for me this dessert isn’t nearly as sweet as I would’ve hoped it to be. Sure, I’m a sugar addict, but my family actually agreed with me on this. If it were me, I would’ve used a sweeter chocolate (because while they have you use bittersweet chocolate they still add sugar to the filling, which is why I would simply use semi-sweet or a even a combination of semi-sweet and milk chocolate and not add any extra sugar) and added wayyy more pomegranate seeds (because they bring a pop of color and fresh flavor to an otherwise rich dessert. Also, I just really love me my pomegranate seeds).
The matcha whipped cream, however, was perfect. It had just enough matcha to give you the subtle flavor while not completely overwhelming you with a kick of matcha in the mouth. Overall, I would love to try this recipe again with some changes that suit my family’s taste. It was an easy dessert to make with detailed instructions that couldn’t lead you astray, and it has an elevated feel that would make it good for a classy dinner party dessert. So I say if you like matcha and chocolate, and want a dessert that isn’t too sweet, give this recipe a go. Just don’t forget to add extra pomegranate seeds because you can’t go wrong with that extra pop!
